Background Labour pain usually brings with it many concerns for a parturient and her family. The majority of the women in labour pain may require some sort of pain relief method during this period, be it pharmacological or non-pharmacological. In Tanzania, the use of non-pharmacological methods to relief labour pain remains low among nurse-midwives. We analysed the experiences of nurse-midwives in the use of non-pharmacological methods to manage labour pain, in two selected districts of Pwani and Dar es Salaam regions in eastern Tanzania. This paper describes Non-pharmacological Methods (NPMs) currently used by nurse-midwives, the facilitators, myths and fears related to the use of NPMs. Materials and Methods An exploratory qualitative study using in-depth interviews was conducted with 18 purposively recruited nurse-midwives working in labour wards in two selected district hospitals in Pwani and Dar es Salaam regions in eastern Tanzania. Qualitative conventional content analysis was used to generate categories describing the experience of using non-pharmacological methods in managing labour pain. Results This study revealed that nurse-midwives encouraged women to tolerate labour pain and instructed them to change positions and to do deep breathing exercises as a means to relief labour pain. Nurse-midwives’ inner motives facilitated the use of non-pharmacological strategies for labour pain relief despite the fear of using them and myths that labour pain is necessary for childbirth. Conclusion This study generates information about the use of non-pharmacological strategies to relief labour pain. Although nurse-midwives are motivated to apply various non-pharmacological strategies to relief labour pain, fear and misconceptions about the necessity of labour pain during childbirth prohibit the effective use of these strategies. Therefore, together with capacity building the nurse-midwives in the use of non-pharmacological strategies to relief labour pain, efforts should be made to address the misconceptions that may partly be of socio-cultural origin.
Background: Labour pain usually bring worries and most of the concerns to a woman and her family. Thus, the majority of the women in labour pain may require some sort of pain relief method be it pharmacological or non-pharmacological during this period. However, in Tanzania, the use of non-pharmacological labour pain-relieving methods remain low among nurse-midwives. This study analyzed the experiences of nurse-midwives on the use of non-pharmacological methods to manage labour pain in two selected districts of Pwani region Tanzania.Materials and Methods: An exploratory qualitative study using a semi-structured interview guide was conducted to purposefully recruited nurse-midwives working in labour ward in two district hospitals in Pwani region Tanzania. Data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach to generate categories describing the experiences of using non-pharmacological methods in managing labour pain. Results: Encouraging women on the tolerability of pain, provision of instructions onchanging positions, deep mouth breathing techniques and exercises, provision of psychological support and provision of sacral massage emerged as the common non-pharmacological methods used by nurse-midwives. Comfortability on using the methods to both nurse-midwives and the women was stated to make both the nurse-midwives and women use them. Furthermore, some nurse-midwives did not use the methods because of limited skills, the misconception that labour pain to delivering women is necessary and lack of awareness of its benefits. Conclusion: The findings of this study underscores that knowledge on benefits on non-pharmacological methods, skills on using non-pharmacological pain and misconception of nurse-midwives on labor pain influence use of non-pharmacological labor pain management.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.